Miria gritted her teeth and swung her Claymore swiftly to parry the flurry of slashes from the Windcutter, only barely being able to par up with the speed that had dramatically improved since the last time she sparred with this person, which was indeed quite some time ago. It didn't help that the area they were in was not exactly familiar to her, but seemingly had been the daily training grounds of her opponent. Miria was constantly forced to take quick glances behind before focusing back to the warrior in case she got driven into a corner, which would definitely lead to an imminent and premature conclusion to their practice. Neither could she afford to divert her attention for too long- even a slight distraction on her part could allow her opponent to get the upper hand. Then again, she had expected nothing less from her partner and friend.

'Stop messing around and get serious Miria.'

She smirked at the challenge posed, mildly amused that the scowl on the girl's face was so discernible even with the blonde bangs over her eyes, the relentlessly snow falling, and her need to concentrate on the powerful blows slashing towards herself more than anything else. She did however also manage to detect a slight stiffness in the opponent's left arm, seeing as she barely swung it and at times was appeared to be even protecting it, almost as if it was a weakness. Though she decided to dismiss it instead of using it to a potential advantage. After all, they were both here to train their respective techniques.

Stealing a last glance at her back, she turned back to her opponent and waited a millisecond for the perfect timing, right when the warrior thought she had the split second window to swing her blade at Miria's opening-

-and before blade could touch flesh, at that very moment, Miria was already out of the path of destruction, a few feet away from the attacker who had ended up slashing the snow-covered rock form, with only a phantom-like mirage in place of where Miria originally was cornered.

Phantoming herself out of danger only a hair fraction before her opponents could savour their sweet taste of victory was something Miria had come to enjoy. It wasn't as if it was something new- the countless battles had forced her to do so time after time, for survival. But it was different from what she was doing now- this was a deliberate action, even going through the trouble of waiting till the attack was so close that she could practically imagine it impaling through her flesh, much like just now. She knew that it was risky, that should she grasp the wrong timing or happen to screw up, there would severed limbs and brutal injuries to come. Then again, this was practice. She could at least let loose a little and enjoy herself, if anything. As she turned to look, the pile of snow that slid from the top landed on the attacker's head, only serving as a bonus to her silent triumph. Her comrade, however, was anything but anywhere near amused. The scowl now was radiating with annoyance, which was somewhat amusing. She suppressed the rare urge to laugh.

'You did that on purpose didn't you.'

She couldn't help but smirk. 'Can't say I didn't'

Instead of adding on to the fury, she saw a gradual change in expression as a slight curl at the corner of the lips replaced the pursed ones from before. She returned the rare smile from Clare, knowing that her friend would never be upset over such a silly thing.

It had been quite some time since the seven of them had went into seclusion in the North. Every single one of them was forced to adapt to their new environment and identities as defectors. She knew that Clare was one of them who had to struggle the most in this new situation they got themselves into- having to suppress their Yoki to naught, erasing any trace of their presence to hide from the Organization- truly as Seven Ghosts of the North who survived the Pieta War. Yet, Clare's most formidable move, the Quicksword, was one that depended so much on Yoki. Of course, Miria herself had to modify her own pet technique, the Phantom Mirage, which also relied on Yoki bursts to execute. Nevertheless, she was truly glad, deep down, that her friend's new move, the Windcutter, was showing so much improvement. She knew how hard Clare trained- or perhaps, she only knew a fraction of her diligence. The Windcutter was far from perfect for now, but she definitely knew was that Clare was only going to get better, and stronger.

'Your Windcutter has gotten faster. I was actually surprised by the increment in speed. You could even say that it caught me off-guard.'

'You could say the same about your New Mirage. I truly thought I was going to maim my own leader.'

'You could always try. Though I must say, you no longer have the element of surprise as an advantage.'

'Each to her own.'

Miria widened her grin. Truthfully, sparring with Clare was one of the only times where she could actually put aside the 'leader' front and allow the perhaps, less serious side to surface. It wasn't as if she had to put on a facade in front of the rest. It was just, perhaps she felt the most comfortable with Clare, somehow.

Though, as much as she regarded Clare as a close friend, Miria found herself sadly still far away from Clare's deepest, darkest and most locked away emotions and past that she kept so well hidden from everyone else. She had never voluntarily talked about it- and neither did Miria think that she would be doing so anytime in the future. The only thing they knew was her thirst for revenge, an ever-raging flame in her beneath that emotionless front. And of course, that masked pain that was reminiscent of every single one of them.

Though at least to Miria, the pain that Clare was hiding was so searing, so obvious that it almost felt like there was an open wound on her. Whatever that was burdening her was the same reason for the sheer sorrow that illuminated in her eyes in the quiet moments where she let her mask off. Miria had captured those fleeting moments a couple of times, but she knew better than to press Clare. They all had secrets and demons of their own to deal with, and Miria herself was no exception. She could only hope that one day, she would be able to take a glimpse into Clare's world, and that her friend would allow her to shoulder her burden together. Because she wanted Clare to know that she wasn't alone- that she had friends who cared.

Miria shook herself out of her thoughts and decided to focus on assessing her surroundings. The place they were in seemed to be a miniature valley, which was relatively narrow in width but stretched a pretty long way in length. What caught her interest were the numerous individual boulders that were near the top of the valley, and countless other empty holes, where she presumed were once filled with boulders. At one end of the valley, there were tons of these giant boulders stacked upon one another in a messy, dangerous-looking array. It looked almost as if a single movement of one boulder could trigger quite a rockslide. This was indeed a queer place to train, and she started musing over Clare's location choice. Maybe...

'This training ground of yours... You're using the naturally existing boulders to your advantage aren't you?'

Clare nodded. 'Sharp as always, Miria...'

'Well, I do have a little conjecture. Your idea of training is to knock those individual rock forms hard enough such that the boulders start to collapse and fall... And at that instant, you leap above it to execute your Windcutter to destroy the boulder as much as possible before it hits the ground. It forces you to up both your speed and intensity of strikes.'

Clare's eyes widened slightly. 'That... was a really good guess Miria. I had to ponder over the plan for many days after discovering this area...The only thing that differs is that I would be below the boulder instead of above...'

'Below it? That's pretty dangerous...'

Miria narrowed her eyes at such a dangerous notion. She was suddenly reminded of the strange observation she made of Clare's left arm and something clicked in her mind.

'Don't tell me... A boulder crashed into your left arm?'

Another surprised look from Clare confirmed her guess.

'I thought I hid it pretty well... It was just that once that got careless and didn't manage to get away in time.'

'Is your injury giving you any problems though? You're lucky it wasn't your dominant arm... this training of yours is high-risk and borderline reckless you know.'

Clare merely shrugged. 'It will be fine... I suppose. And well, at least this form of training it makes me feel the adrenaline rush and pressure to move my arm faster and harder. It's the only way I can think of to hasten my speed training. I have to get stronger, after all…'

Miria could only sigh. It was typical of Clare to push the limits, or rather push her limits. But then again, Miria herself wasn't any much different either. In fact, all seven of them were doing the same- trying their very best to become as strong as possible. All in preparation for their ambitious plan...

On a side note, she wasn't exactly convinced about the condition of Clare's arm. It was more likely that her friend was understating the severity to dismiss her concerns. Nevertheless, she decided to let it be, since it didn't appear to be too much of a hindrance. Or so she hoped.

'Alright I guess we had enough of idle chat. Ready to go again?'

Clare assumed her stance, sword at the ready.

'Whenever you are.'

'Right... I won't go easy on you even with your injury.'

'And I expect nothing less. Let's go!'

Both of them leaped at each other at full force as their swords clashed once again, the resounding clinking of metal against metal mightier than the howling wind. Miria wasn't holding back anymore though, not when her opponent was Clare, and not when this fight could turn out to be the most engaging one she had had in awhile.

They went at each other again and again, speed matching speed, blade meeting blade. The rigor and heat of the battle was exhilarating, and Miria could feel that both of them were enjoying it as much as the other, yet unwilling to lose the fight, which made them even more determined to subdue each other.

Their battle had dragged on for quite awhile when at one moment, she abruptly got the feeling that Clare was a little distracted. She was trying to figure out the reason when she suddenly felt an unwarranted presence nearby. Two of them, actually. She couldn't feel any Yoki, but there was definitely someone else other than the two of them in this place. Could it be an enemy? They have roamed the cold lands all these years without being discovered or finding anyone else other than themselves. If it was someone from the Organization, surely she would have felt their Yoki? Unless the warrior was a master at suppressing Yoki…

Then again, it could also just be the other Ghosts who managed to find the both of them. They would sometimes take time to watch each other's sparring to help one another improve. And because of them suppressing their Yoki for years, it was almost impossible to sense them by their Yoki signature anymore. But Miria couldn't be sure. And she didn't particularly want to take that risk.

Her eyes darted sideways quickly to find that they had unknowingly shifted their position so much that they were now right at the base of the mountain of boulders. She had a very bad feeling in her chest, something that could only be deemed as an ominous premonition. The distraction almost cost her a slash to her shoulder as she brought her own sword up just in the nick of time to deflect the blow. She forced herself to pinpoint the location of the unknown intruder.

'Miria… Do you sense it?'

'Hold on for a moment.'

Phantoming herself upwards, she leaped towards higher ground to scan the white lands above the valley. It brought great relief to her when she identified the two familiar figures right beside the highest of the boulders.

But at the next instant, her blood turned cold when she saw two blades slashing down on the boulders, causing the top boulder to dislodge. That single action was enough to cause a ripple effect downwards, with groaning and grinding sounds of earth against earth filling the air. The speed at which the countless boulders started cascading down was devastating, almost unearthly.

She almost felt her heart stop as she remembered her friend that was directly in the path of destruction.

'Clare get out of there!'

In a split second she phantomed her way back down, feeling the vibration of the entire area as the deafening tumbling of boulders continued. She willed gravity to propel her downwards faster, stretching her arm out desperately to reach her comrade.

Everything was happening so quickly, but closing the distance between her and Clare felt so frustratingly long. She saw Clare turning away from the boulders rushing towards her to face Miria, a tensed expression on her face. She didn't understand why Clare stood rooted to the ground, as if she was oblivious to the danger heading towards her. It didn't occur to her that it was because Clare couldn't move. It felt like everything was in slow motion as she reached out for Clare's left arm, which was raised feebly towards her. Miria could almost feel a heavy weight off her chest when she finally managed to grab Clare's arm as she immediately called upon her technique and phantomed-

Yet, at that very same instant, she felt the very same person who she had been gripping recoiling from her, tearing her grip away from Clare's arm. Clare's face twisted into boundless agony as she dropped her Claymore, her right hand clutching her left arm as she fell to her knees-

No!

She was too late. She felt herself being pulled away from Clare, her own blood-curdling scream echoing through the valley. Her frenzied eyes widened as she felt her limbs weakening. She felt something in her dying as she witnessed the boulders engulfing her friend, stacking upon one another till there was no trace of the warrior left.

'CLARE!'

Though I should really focus on my other fic, I just couldn't get the idea of this fic out of my head. Will update the other fic soon! Anyway, the title of this fic is inspired by the japanese theme song for FFXIII-2, The Promised Place. Apologies if the action parts are lacklustre, not really good at them. Hope the subsequent chapters will make up for it. Clare's POV for subsequent chapters!